Krugman, Stewart in trillion-dollar coin tiff

1/15/13 11:07 AM EST

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman and comedian Jon Stewart are currently in the midst of a tiff over the trillion-dollar coin.

Stewart first took on the coin in a segment on “The Daily Show” last Thursday, joking that “if we’re going to make shit up, I say go big or go home” and suggesting it makes just as much sense to mint a twenty-trillion dollar coin or maybe just “find” a “one-hundred quillion-dollar bill” featuring a centaur and a unicorn as it does to make the trillion-dollar coin. Krugman then blasted Stewart in a Saturday column, “Lazy Jon Stewart,” for the show's mockery of the coin.

“What went wrong here is a lack of professionalism on the part of Stewart and his staff,” he wrote. “Yes, it’s a comedy show — but the jokes are supposed to be (and usually are) knowing jokes, which are funny and powerful precisely because the Daily Show people have done their homework and understand the real issues better than the alleged leaders spouting nonsense. In this case, however, it’s obvious that nobody at TDS spent even a few minutes researching the topic. It was just yuk-yuk-yuk they’re talking about a trillion-dollar con hahaha.”

Krugman also told ABC in a Sunday interview posted online that Stewart is “ruining his brand” with his take on the coin.

“The idea is that the show should be like an especially good episode of the roundtable on ‘This Week,’ but in the form of jokes,” Krugman said. “But when he just turns it into dumb, ‘I don’t know nothing, but those people look dumb to me,’ he’s ruining his own brand.”

“And second of all, if somebody is ruining their brand with a trillion-dollar coin idea, I don’t think it’s the non-economist,” he said.

The Daily Show host wrapped up his commentary by saying he stands by his initial assessment of the coin. It's a "stupid f---ing idea,” Stewart said.

“I stand by our research on the topic, the due diligence, and my ignorant conclusion that a trillion-dollar coin minted to allow the president to circumvent the debt ceiling, however arbitrary that may be, is a stupid f---ing idea,” Stewart said. “I said, good day. And I’m a fan of Paul Krugman.”